Retail & consumer goods

Integrating generative AI into core retail workflows puts growth into motion. By empowering marketing, merchandising, and store operations planners—and using integrated data, analytic, and agentic solutions—online and in-store customer experiences are made more relevant, increasing both customer purchases and loyalty. AI shopping agents deliver hyper-personalized customer recommendations and engagement and manage complex queries to address shifting consumer preferences, converting new customers at scale and increasing purchases from existing customers. Robust governance ensures that models remain secure, accurate, and cost-effective, supporting sustainable expansion.

Loyalty is being radically redefined this year—and it’s not just about points and perks. Today's loyalty is about forging deeper connections and creating greater value for both customers and companies. Leading brands are leveraging AI-driven personalization and unified data to design emotionally resonant experiences that drive engagement, boost transactions, and strengthen loyalty. In the travel industry for example, this new approach extends beyond traditional customers, reaching new constituents like travel agents by making loyalty benefits and program features more accessible across the ecosystem.

Today, loyalty is an enterprise-wide strategy, powered by customer data platforms and advanced MarTech. Brands and retailers are delivering curated customer experiences from runway shows to exclusive celebrity events, while hospitality leaders are reinventing franchise relationships, and travel companies are weaving curated adventures and enhanced experience design throughout their loyalty ecosystems. Tailored loyalty strategies, journey mapping, and deep personalization powered by MarTech and AI are becoming the new standard.

The brands that will win loyal customers for life are those that focus on understanding people, delivering surprise-and-delight moments, and forging long-term bonds. These organizations will unlock new revenue streams, increase margins, and deepen brand affiliation for every member of their loyalty network.

Turning loyalty into a strategic growth lever

Today’s leading organizations are rethinking loyalty as a core enterprise capability—not a campaign. To compete, leaders should ask:

Legacy systems—once foundational—now impede innovation and limit the ability to deliver unified, 1:1 marketing, loyalty, and commerce interactions across every touchpoint.

Today’s replatforming strategies focus on building integrated architectures that connect front-end experiences—such as personalized offers, loyalty rewards, and targeted marketing—with robust back-end operations. This alignment creates a holistic view of each customer and enables brands to deliver real-time, relevant experiences at scale.

Modern payment systems are a component of this transformation, connecting enterprise functions, accelerating revenue, and streamlining transactions. As companies across industries modernize their platforms, they unlock new value through seamless experience orchestration and resilient technologies. A payment platform health check can uncover major opportunities, as seen with a home improvement retailer’s substantial cost savings. 

By optimizing the full spectrum of personalized marketing, loyalty, commerce, and payment capabilities, companies can enhance satisfaction, drive loyalty, and set new standards for resilient, growth-ready commerce in 2026. 

Today’s customers expect seamless, memorable experiences. This is true whether they’re booking a flight, receiving support, or shopping online. The real breakthrough comes when companies achieve a unified view of each customer, allowing them to transform fragmented encounters into cohesive, emotionally resonant journeys. With consistency in look, feel, pricing, and content, every touchpoint becomes an opportunity to make customers feel like VIPs, regardless of where they connect.

2026 marks a turning point, as omnichannel engagement evolves from simply linking touchpoints to orchestrating intelligent, personalized experiences at scale. Using real-time data, AI, and advanced platforms, brands are moving beyond unified customer profiles to predictive engagement—anticipating needs and adapting content instantly. Hyper-personalization—powered by generative AI—will tailor offers, communications, and support, while respecting privacy. Simultaneously, empowered associates and service teams will bridge digital and physical experiences. Real-time integration will also bring transparency to inventory, delivery, and support, making fulfillment a differentiator. And digital humans will introduce new levels of innovation and empathy.

This year, omnichannel engagement becomes proactive and deeply human, transforming every interaction into a chance to foster loyalty. Personalized engagement across channels converts transactional relationships into emotional connections that drive retention, growth, and profitability. In the end, this creates a sustainable competitive advantage rooted in trust.

AI and real-time data are the engines driving smarter, faster, and more resilient supply chains and empowered workforces. Savvy companies can navigate—and even master—the complexities of global supply chains with unprecedented precision by using AI tools and strategies to streamline processes and inform strategic decisions. For example: 

1. Tariff calculators provide instant insights into tariff impacts and guide confident, data-driven choices.
2. World event simulations help companies anticipate and adapt to supply chain disruptions in real-time.
3. Computer vision enhances efficiency, saving valuable time and resources across demand sensing and forecasting, inventory and allocations optimization, replenishment, and warehouse and logistics flow management.

In 2026, operational excellence will be defined by supply chains that are predictive, resilient, and tightly integrated with empowered workforces. The convergence of AI and real-time data shifts supply chain management from reactive to proactive—helping companies anticipate disruptions, optimize decisions, and set new agility standards.

Integrated business planning is emerging as the backbone of this operational excellence. Accurate forecasting and seamless coordination across every function ensure that supply, demand, and workforce strategies are fully aligned. For example, Nestle Purina demonstrates how strategic planning and advanced analytics can optimize operations end-to-end, while research centers help clients harness their data for innovative, real-time solutions. In this dynamic environment, staying ahead of tariff shifts and market changes is critical, as these can ripple through supply chains in moments.

The human element of supply chains is equally important to company operations. Next-generation supply chains connect workforce dynamics—such as team size, cost, and productivity—directly to customer outcomes. Leaders in 2026 will use these insights to drive smarter engagement, agile staffing, and stronger operational results, integrating workforce analytics with loyalty, omnichannel, and experience-led strategies. 

In 2026, operational excellence will be defined by supply chains that are predictive, resilient, and tightly integrated with empowered workforces. The convergence of AI and real-time data shifts supply chain management from reactive to proactive—helping companies anticipate disruptions, optimize decisions, and set new agility standards. 

Integrated business planning is emerging as the backbone of this operational excellence. Accurate forecasting and seamless coordination across every function ensure that supply, demand, and workforce strategies are fully aligned. For example, Nestle Purina demonstrates how strategic planning and advanced analytics can optimize operations end-to-end, while research centers help clients harness their data for innovative, real-time solutions. In this dynamic environment, staying ahead of tariff shifts and market changes is critical, as these can ripple through supply chains in moments.

The human element of supply chains is equally important to company operations. Next-generation supply chains connect workforce dynamics—such as team size, cost, and productivity—directly to customer outcomes. Leaders in 2026 will use these insights to drive smarter engagement, agile staffing, and stronger operational results, integrating workforce analytics with loyalty, omnichannel, and experience-led strategies. 

Imagine a future where every interaction is powered by data-driven insights, transforming the way businesses operate and serve their customers. In 2026, the use of workforce analytics is ready to reform the industry, tackling labor challenges and skyrocketing productivity. Store associates will be equipped with real-time data, allowing them to make personalized recommendations that not only enhance customer service but also create notable shopping experiences. AI acts as a vital tool, providing instant access to information and helping associates assist customers efficiently.

Onboarding and training processes move from tedious obligations to opportunities to boost employee satisfaction and reduce turnover rates. AI steps in to streamline operations, helping agents resolve customer inquiries with ease and elevating the overall customer experience. In travel and hospitality, Slalom is working with industry leaders to assess and elevate the entire traveler experience—whether on the way to the airport, in the terminal, at the gate, onboard, or when connecting with traveler support or contact center agents. These organizations are breaking down platform boundaries to deliver new offerings, deepen engagement, and raise the bar on service. At the same time, AI supports tactical excellence—from crew scheduling and staffing to data sharing and predictive insights—enabling employees to serve with greater precision, confidence, and care.

Workforce analytics will spark innovation in 2026. But organizational adaptation requires leadership investment in new team structures, talent models, operating rhythms, and decision-making frameworks. Leaders have a choice in 2026: steer the transformation or fall behind the competition.